Random Japan

2010 Roundup

APRIL


“Kodokan” means “we automatically win”
The All Japan Judo Federation said it would do away with its homegrown “Kodokan” rules and instead adopt the standards of the International Judo Federation.

Dude, chill out
After losing to an unheralded rival in the prestigious Koshien baseball tournament, the coach of a high school team in Shimane said his squad’s performance “was a humiliation that will carry over for generations. I can’t get over it… I want to die.”

Warning: irony alert
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is organizing an 8,000km boat cruise for relatives of servicemen who were killed at sea during World War II.

Hey, hang on a minute…
The Japan Mint is selling newly pressed ¥1,000 coins featuring the likeness of 19th-century samurai Ryoma Sakamoto for ¥6,000.

The wrestler and the rye
The mother of Estonian sumo wrestler Baruto, who was promoted to the second-highest rank of ozeki, said that after first arriving in Japan, her son “was unaccustomed to Japanese food” and “missed rye bread.”

MAY

What a difference 70 years makes
A survey by the BBC and the Yomiuri Shimbun revealed that Germany and Japan are, for the second year in a row, the two most “favorably viewed” nations in the world.

Way to reinforce the stereotype, hun
Astronaut Naoko Yamazaki donned a pink kimono and served handmade sushi rolls to her colleagues aboard the International Space Station.

C’mon, what’s 3.6 million among friends?
A citizens group has hit former Yokohama mayor Hiroshi Nakada with a ¥7.8 billion lawsuit over losses related to last year’s Expo Y150. The festival, which celebrated the 150th anniversary of the opening of Yokohama Port, drew 1.4 million of the expected 5 million visitors.

On the plus side, sales of self-surgery kits are booming
A survey of 573 workers in Tokyo and Osaka found that the economic situation is so bad that 20 percent had cut back on food and 17 percent couldn’t afford to see a doctor.

JUNE

Spreading the love
Police in Nagoya investigated an incident in which a 49-year-old local man crashed his car into a highway median, got out of the vehicle, and started scattering banknotes onto the roadway.

Whatever floats your boat
It was reported that a group of rice farmers in Gifu who have revived a 1,000-year-old technique of planting crops in a circular pattern are wont to chant, “The rice fields here are round, not square.”

The definition of chutzpah
Police say that a Tokyo-based internet advertising company released a virus onto users’ computers, then demanded money from victims who asked the company to delete the info.

How they could tell, we have no idea
A team of researchers at Osaka University have discovered that “something in red wine helps rats have erections.”

JULY

You’re welcome. Now get the f**k out
The US House of Representatives passed a resolution offering thanks to the people of Okinawa for their “broad support and understanding” in hosting American military installations on the islands.

But even they don’t like Glenn Beck
Researchers at Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute found that monkeys enjoy watching TV.

Let them eat sushi
It was reported that the average summer bonus of government workers this year is a whopping ¥577,500, up ¥4,000 from last year.

Yeah, but you should see our government workers
According to the esteemed science journal Nature, Japan “has the world’s saddest scientists.”

That’s k-a-r-m-a
“Legendary” Toyota test driver Hiromu Naruse, 67, was killed while piloting a luxury Lexus sports car around a public road in Germany. No word on whether unintended acceleration was to blame.

And mistakes were made
A group of five junior high school students in Gifu tied a fellow student to a chair, stripped her naked, then shot video, which they emailed to a bunch of friends. The principal acknowledged, “There was bullying.”